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Corn As Cover Crop: Drake's Quandary
Context: KNF Podcast LIVE - 9 February, 2025 @ 48:36 "In Hawaii, in hot weather, instead of rye (as a cover crop), we use corn. Corn is fastest growing. Drake says, "Master Cho talks about corn a lot and I've never really had much success with corn because the soil is so acidic. Maybe I need to do more sea water, but I've never had success with corn particularly, but it would be worth it to give it a go this year, I don't know, we'll see. But he always comes and talks about corn. But you know what works well? Sugar cane. It's just harder to remove. " He goes on to talk about river cane, banana...
Question: I wonder if sorghum or Sorghum-sudangrass might work since they can withstand some soil acidity, they are annual, and are used as cover crops typically.
Asked by Josephine Irvine · about 1 year ago · 4733 views
1 Answer
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Sorghum-sudangrass is a great cover crop and chop n drop for gardens its a winter kill cover crop so it easy to terminate, grows fast, digs deep and provides lots of sugars ( i myself grew it in a patch for 2 seasons and used it as a chop n drop mulch it regrows fast and i could get 3-4 chops out of the season chopping at around 3ft/1m the patch that i grew it in was un-amended soil really heavy clay after the 2 seasons it had made great soil ) ...it is also great for foraging and grazing but can be dangerous to animals in frost areas if not tended to properly more info here : https://forages.oregonstate.edu/fi/topics/pasturesandgrazing/grazingsystemdesign/preventingprussicacidpoisening#:~:text=If%20favorable%20weather%20for%20growth%20follows%20such%20a%20frost%2C%20sudangrass,if%20pastured%2C%20cause%20cyanide%20poisoning. ...lowering the acidity of soil can be done through adding lime to help balance the ph ...corn is a great cover crop as well but needs to be terminated early before it starts to put on grains it is also a winter kill cover crop, grows fast, digs deep ...sunn hemp i think would also work really well in Hawaii as a great cover crop https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_crju.pdf
by dagoofman · about 1 year ago